Biochip becomes increasingly popular in academic, government and private organizations in different countries. For DNA chips, technologies related to DNA binding analysis, sequence detection, quantitative analysis, capillary electrophoresis separation detection, nucleic acid amplification and parallel gene expression analysis become well developed. In the meantime, a series of other analytic methods such as cell separation, cell immunity analysis, and applications integrated with combinatorial chemistry are derived, and the research and development of new medicines to provide a high throughput screening. In addition, material technologies are well developed, and biochips are not only made of silicon, but also made of plastic films and elastomers as well. Up to now, the research and development of biochips emphasizes on the applications of DNA chips and the testing requirements of DNA to develop a series of technologies and products, such as quick DNA inspection analysis technology, DNA cloning and segmentation analysis technology, and integrated DNA analysis system, etc.
Biosensor is the most unique part of a biochip that integrates a biological device as a sensing structure. The biosensor is connected to a transducer to achieve the function of detecting a biological reaction. In the development of related chips, the detection method preferably adopts an optical method to provide a higher sensitivity. Although the fluorescent method is used extensively, yet the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) method can provide an instant measure since SPR does not require pre-labeling, and thus SPR has become an important research tool. A biosensor that uses the optical principle of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for a transducer is called a surface plasmon resonance sensor (SPRS). If a dielectric material exists in the testing environment, and the assembly, concentration or composition may vary and cause a change of refractive coefficient, then the kinetic energy of the penetrating light will be reflected onto the change of the SPR resonant angle. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) will occur at the intersection of a metal and an insulating dielectric material, and the penetrating depth of the electric field perpendicular to the interface and the transversal propagation length shows an exponential attenuation by the excitation of a coupler and a polarized electromagnetic wave (TM-wave). If each sensing area of a chip goes through different activating processes and fixes with different antigens (or antibodies), the sensing area of the chip is combined with its corresponding antigen (or antibody). A successfully bonded analyzing matter will affect the change of intensity of a reflected light, and a matter exceeding the range of the surface plasma wave will not affect the measuring result. Therefore, measurements obtained by the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) method has a high discrimination level.
The invention focuses on the research and development of the applications on optical protein biomolecule examinations and sensing components of a gas SPR chip. With the content of the invention, the accuracy and sensitivity of the SPR sensor are improved effectively. In the researches of proteomes, large-scale studies are focused on protein molecules such as receptors and hormones, in hope of fully understanding the important functions of disease mechanisms, cell operation mechanisms and cell network messages. With such researches, a new medicine can be developed, and particularly the results of the researches have positive effects on medicines having reactions with proteins in cells. The bottlenecks of these researches reside on the huge consumption of manpower and the insufficient sensitivity of detection methods. In the development of gas sensor chips, the detected gas usually comes with a small concentration, and thus it is a primary goal to develop a gas sensor with high sensitivity and accuracy. Regardless of the application for protein biomolecules or gas sensor chips, the surface plasmon resonance sensor (SPRS) detection system of the invention can provide a better application.